The Wisdom of the Expression “Breathing” (nafkh), Rather Than “Breathing of the Spirit” (nafkh rūḥ):

The Messiah performed all miraculous works by God’s permission and as a vicegerent (khalīfa) and manifestation (maẓhariyya) of the Exalted Lord. However, the aspects of this vicegerency and manifestation are different, because in the process of reviving the dead, the same expression “reviving” (iḥyāʾ) was used that God employs essentially and independently regarding His own work; but in the process of breathing into the fashioned bird - not into anything else nor into a human being - the expression “breathing of the spirit” (nafkh rūḥ) was not used, but it was only referred to as “breathing” (nafkh). Now, what does this refer to? Does it refer to the fact that the preliminary stage of the development of the mentioned bird is through Jesus’s breathing? However, the external existence and existential perfection is through the Lord’s creation - of course, this assumption is also compatible with the spirit (even the animal spirit) being corporeal in origination (jismāniyyat al-ḥudūth) and spiritual in subsistence (rūḥāniyyat al-baqāʾ). Alternatively does is the mentioned expression a metaphor for breathing the spirit into the creature and has been expressed as mere breathing for the sake of simplicity? Valid proof is needed to establish either one; although the first possibility is more appropriate to the expression.

c. That initial form (hayʾa) which Jesus fashioned into the shape of a bird would become a real bird by God’s permission: “and it will become a bird” (fa-takūnu ṭayran).

It should be noted that the transformation of the statue into an animal and bird by the hand of the Messiah Jesus is completely acceptable, because in this transformation, the intermediate stages were traversed rapidly and this is a miracle, not an omission of these stages.(170)

Note: There is a difference between the miracle of Jesus and the magic of the Samaritan, because in the miracle of the Messiah Jesus, the form of the bird was fashioned by his hand and became a real bird by divine permission: “and it will become a bird by God’s permission” (fa-yakūnu ṭayran bi-idhn Allāh)(171) but in the Samaritan’s trickery, the calf did not actually come to life and did not acquire animal life, but rather that statue was in the form of a calf in which a device had been installed and it would make a sound with the flow of air: “Then he produced for them a calf—a [lifeless] body with a low” (fa-akhraja lahum ʿijlan jasadan lahu khuwār)(172)

In the present era, numerous sculptures are made through artistic and technical works that have no life; but they have sound and voice.

Note: Some great exegetes, such as Shaykh Ṭūsī in al-Tibyān (173) and Amīn al-Islām Ṭabarsī in Majmaʿ al-Bayān,(174) as well as some later philosophers, such as Āqā ʿAlī Ḥakīm,(175) based on the verse “… then I will breathe into it, and it will become a bird by God’s permission …” have said that Jesus’s work up to the stage of breathing (nafkh) was ordinary work; but after that stage which relates to the coming to life of the bird’s form (hayʾa): “and it will become a bird” (fa-yakūnu ṭayran) was an extraordinary matter, for this reason the phrase “by God’s permission” (bi-idhn Allāh) is mentioned alongside it.

Fourth amongst the feats of Jesus (a.s.) that were empowered by the Holy Spirit was healing the man who was blind from birth and the leper(176) by God’s permission: “And you heal the blind and the leper by My permission” (wa-tubriʾu l-akmaha wa-l-abraṣa bi-idhnī): The relationship between the blind (aʿmā) and the blind from birth (akmah) is that of absolute general and particular, because the blind (aʿmā) is absolute and includes both the currently blind and the blind from birth; but the blind from birth (akmah) refers only to one blind from birth. (177)

Fifth, reviving the dead by God’s permission: “And when you bring forth the dead by My permission” (wa-idh tukhriju l-mawtā bi-idhnī): Bringing forth the dead (ikhrāj mawtā) means bringing the dead out of the grave and is a metaphor for reviving them. God also sometimes says about His own reviving: “He gives life and causes death” (yuḥyī wa-yumītu) (178) and sometimes He expresses it as bringing forth: “From it did We create you, into it shall We return you, and from it shall We bring you forth another time” (minhā khalaqnākum wa-fīhā nuʿīdukum wa-minhā nukhrijukum tāratan ukhrā). (179)

For the saints (awliyāʾ) and divine prophets, the matter of reviving the dead has occurred in three forms:

a. Sometimes God would revive a dead person in their presence or cause a living being to die and then revive it, so that they would gain greater certainty of heart: “And look at the bones, how We arrange them and then clothe them with flesh …” (180)

b. Sometimes He would cause them to die and then revive them; such as “Or him who came upon a township … He said, ‘How will God revive this after its death?!’ So God made him die for a hundred years, then He resurrected him” (181) where this revival occurred to that saint of God Himself.

c. Sometimes it is by the hand of one who has passed through both stages or both have been clear to him; but he wanted to learn and observe the reviving of the dead himself and for this miracle (karāma) to be manifested by his hand.

The third stage is the most complete stage, and the revival of the dead by the hand of Abraham: “And when Abraham said, ‘My Lord! Show me how You revive the dead’ … He said, ‘Take four of the birds …” (182) and Jesus: “I revive the dead” (183) was of this kind.

The expression “And when you bring forth the dead by My permission” (wa-idh tukhriju l-mawtā bi-idhnī) indicates that Jesus possessed a superior miracle, because the word “the dead” (al-mawtā) is a plural with the definite article (alif wa-lām) which indicates plurality and abundance; that is, Jesus revived many dead people by God’s permission. Based on some narrations that will also come in the narrative discussion, some of these dead people who were revived by Jesus’s hand lived for nearly twenty years and then departed from the world. (184)

The phrase “by My permission” (bi-idhnī) indicates that the powers of original creation and renewed creation was given to Jesus by divine grace. Such that no one would even momentarily imagine that this act was by Jesus’s own hand or power, at the end of each section the word “by My permission” (bi-idhnī) and similar expressions are mentioned; that is, Jesus performed all these acts by God’s permission, just as the angels perform such acts by divine permission rather than by their own power.

In the verse “I have certainly brought you a sign from your Lord: I will create for you out of clay the form of a bird, then I will breathe into it, and it will become a bird by God’s leave. And I heal the blind and the leper and I revive the dead by God’s leave” (185)

The qualification “by God’s leave” (bi-idhn Allāh) is also not specific to the revival of the dead, and although when a qualification comes after several sentences, its certain scope is to refer back to the last sentence; but here there is specific evidence for generalization, and by the context of the verse under discussion, this part is among the instances of the chapter on contention (tanāzuʿ), and the word “by God’s leave” (bi-idhn Allāh) is, from the chapter of contention, both a qualification for “I revive” (uḥyī) and a qualification for “I heal” (ubriʾu), just as in the sentence before it, the word “by God’s leave” (bi-idhn Allāh) relates to all three verbs “I create… then I breathe… and it becomes” (akhluqu… fa-anfukhu… fa-yakūnu), and the mentioned miracles in all sections are by God’s permission, and it is not the case that one permission was specific to the last matter in the verse, but rather both the breathing is by God’s permission and the coming to life and the taking flight of it. Therefore, by God’s permission, Jesus became the manifestation of “And I breathed into him of My spirit.”(186) As a result, permission was given to Jesus both in breathing and in bringing the bird to life, just as the repetition of the word permission is not for emphasis, because it would be establishing for each case.

Some hold that the reason the word permission is mentioned twice in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān (verse 49) and four times here is that the main purpose in that chapter was merely reporting, while in this chapter it was counting God’s blessings upon that personage,(187) and observing the requirements of the situation was what took place.

It should be said that just as the repetition or non-repetition of the word “permission” (idhn) is not without significance, the repetition or non-repetition of the word “when” (idh) will also not be without significance. Perhaps the reason for not repeating the word “when” (idh) in the course of teaching the Book and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel is that they were all bestowed at once and there was no gradual progression in them. (188)

Note:

a. The divine permission (idhn) mentioned is specifically given to Jesus (a.s.), and this permission is a special permission without which the realization of an act by other than God is not possible.

Based on this, if others were to make a form from clay in the shape of a bird and breathe into it, it would not be possible for it to come to life, because this bird must be made by the hand of Jesus and breathed into by his pure mouth so that it comes to life and flies by God’s permission, just as if someone other than Abraham were to cut off the heads of four birds and cut them into pieces and mix them and place them on mountains and then call each one by its own name, they would never come to life, because God had given permission specifically to Abraham. (189)

b. The process of “breathing by God’s permission” (nafkh bi-idhn Allāh) can be reminiscent of such an expression: “You did not breathe when you breathed, rather it was God who breathed” (wa-mā nafakhta idh nafakhta wa-lākin Allāh nafakha); similar to “You did not kill them; rather it was God who killed them; and you did not throw when you threw, rather it was God who threw.”(190) This is because Jesus (a.s.) was among the prominent examples of those who attained the exalted station of the proximity of supererogatory acts (qurb al-nawāfil), and in that sublime proximity all the perceptual and motivational channels of the human being who draws near to God become the manifestation of God’s active knowledge and active will (not essential). Therefore, the true breather (nāfikh) is God’s creative will (irāda takwīniyya) for giving life and primary or renewed revival of a living being. The same applies to the healing of the blind and the leper, and there is no need for the interpretation that Jesus (a.s.) prayed and God answered; although the process of the prayer of God’s friend (walī) and divine response is a certain matter.

It is necessary to note that explaining the miracles of that personage based on the proximity of supererogatory acts (qurb al-nawāfil) will not entail deficiency in the station of prophethood, because the mentioned proximity is the essence of the perfection of an infallible human being who lives with complete unity of acts (tawḥīd kāmil afʿālī).

c. Regarding the foretelling of Jesus (a.s.) who, by God’s command, told the people: I will tell you what you have eaten and what you have stored in your houses: “I will tell you what you have eaten and what you have stored in your houses” (191) - explicitly the phrase “by God’s leave” (bi-idhn Allāh) is not mentioned; however, there is evidence that this case was also by God’s permission, because firstly all the miracles that were mentioned before this case were accompanied by God’s permission. Secondly, God told Jesus at the beginning of that verse to tell the people that he had brought them a sign from their Lord: “I have certainly brought you a sign from your Lord”,(192) meaning what you see from me, all of it are divine signs, not by my independence. Therefore, if the acts of Jesus are signs of God, they were all by divine permission, otherwise the acts of Jesus would not have been signs of God’s power, but rather signs of his own independence.

The sixth aspect of God’s support to Jesus (a.s.) through the Holy Spirit was His protection of Jesus from the conspiracy and harm of the Jews who disbelieved in him: “And [remember] when I restrained the Children of Israel from [killing] you” (wa-idh kafaftu banī Isrāʾīl ʿanka); if they had not intended to harm Jesus, stating this divine favor would not have been necessary, so this explicit statement itself indicates their definite conspiracy against Jesus.

The Qur’an says regarding the conspiracy of the Jews: “Then they plotted [against Jesus], and God also devised, and God is the best of devisers”;(193) they had a plan in mind and intended to harm Jesus; but God is the most important planner and the best one who places a barrier between any thing and its causes.

This divine support is part of the verses of favor (āyāt imtināniyya) that also befell the followers of the final Prophet and the Muslims, and the hands of enemies were shortened from them: “O you who have faith! Remember God’s blessing upon you when a people set out to extend their hands against you, but He withheld their hands from you, and be wary of God, and in God let all the faithful put their trust.” (194)

In this part of the verse under discussion, the phrase “by God’s leave” (bi-idhn Allāh) is not mentioned, because God attributes the act directly to Himself.

It should be mentioned that the intended meaning of “with manifest proofs” (bi-l-bayyināt) in “and when I held off [the evil of] the Children of Israel from you when you brought them manifest proofs” (wa-idh kafaftu banī Isrāʾīl ʿanka idh jiʾtahum bi-l-bayyināt) refers to the divine favors that were mentioned before this. Consequently, the definite article (alif wa-lām) of this word is for previous mention and mental reference (ʿahd dhikrī wa-dhihnī).

At the end of enumerating the instances of divine support for Jesus (a.s.), it is useful to mention this point: what is understood from the verse under discussion is the external occurrence of the mentioned miracles, not merely the power over them and capability regarding them. This is because the apparent meaning of “you brought them manifest proofs” (jiʾtahum bi-l-bayyināt), which is mentioned with a past tense verb, as well as the apparent meaning of the accusation by the envious deniers and stubborn opponents that this matter is magic, indicates their actual occurrence. Otherwise, mere capability over extraordinary acts would not be accused of being magic, and the incredulity of some regarding their external occurrence is unwarranted. (195)